Brayborne Facilities Services, has welcomed the recommendations of the Equalities & Human Rights Commission in its report published last week, 'The Invisible Workforce: Employment Practice in the Cleaning Sector' and has joined the call for improved working conditions and employment rights for cleaning operatives.

The report, part of a project to examine employment practices in the cleaning sector in England, Scotland and Wales, has made a number of recommendations which the Commission will take forward to a task force of key stakeholders in the sector.

"The report has highlighted some key issues in the cleaning sector which have never been an issue within our company, but which we know are serious issues elsewhere," said Lorraine Gibson, Managing Director of Brayborne Facilities Services. "We would welcome the opportunity to be more fully involved in this project, as raising standards, changing perceptions and respect for cleaning operatives and providing good quality contracts of employment for our staff are issues about which we have felt passionately for many years.

"We believe that we have some of the best terms of employment in the sector, all of our staff are employees of Brayborne and not contractors and we carry out training at all levels of the organisation. Much of the cleaning sector appears not to care for its staff in this way and we welcome the focus on this issue given by the report.

"Our concerns with procurement practices are that organisations make decisions about contracts based purely on price rather than establishing a long-term quality partnership and we believe that giving more attention to the quality and reliability of the cleaning company will benefit employees as well as the client."